Tag: affordability crisis

Thanks for the Broken Promises, Donald Trump

Today ends the ninth month of 2026.

Just a little month than a month and a few days remain until the November midterm elections. It’s a good time to reflect on what Donald Trump promised and what Donald Trump delivered.

Back in 2024, Donald Trump promised no new wars. At the end of Feb, just seven months ago, Trump started a new war with Iran. Donald Trump has since claimed we won the war or that it’s over or that it’s almost over over 30 times.

How can anyone still believe anything Donald Trump says about the war with Iran after that?

Donald Trump’s story about his relationship with Epstein and the Epstein files shifts just as much.

From that quote, Trump drifting into telling us that he barely knew Epstein.

““Well, I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him. I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach,” Trump said in 2019 soon after Epstein was charged. “I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn’t a fan.”

When asked in 2024 while he was running for office, Donald Trump said that he would release the Epstein files if elected. Almost two years into his second term, they still haven’t been fully released, and Trump’s DOJ continues to avoid doing so, despite a law saying he would.

While campaigning in 2024, Donald Trump assured voters he would lower prices, vilifying President Biden’s economy as he did.

Now AAA national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is $4.43. By comparison, the national average in September 2024 hovered between $3.06 and $3.24, meaning drivers are paying roughly $1.20 to $1.37 more per gallon today than they did two years ago.

Many food prices are higher this year than they were in 2024, especially beef, coffee, chicken, and fruit and vegetables.

Thanks, Donald Trump, for breaking all of these promises and assurances.

Thanks to Donald Trump’s arrogance, Americans can no longer see the White House’s East Wing. Donald Trump demolished it to build a new ballroom. Donald Trump claimed that balloom would cost Americans nothing because donors were paying for it all. Now Trump insists that the ballroom is being build for ‘national security’.

We the People will pay about $1B for a project we didn’t ask for and Congress never approved.

It’s like renting your house to someone. While they’re living there, they tear down part of it because they’re living there, so they assume they have the right to change it as they want.

These things are not even the top of the mountain, and Trump has brought a mountain of disaster to the United States and the world. Today’s headlines will help keep us focused on what a disaster Trump is in his second term of office.

The Government Rolled Back Fuel Economy Standards. Here’s How Many Lives It Will Cost

Only Trump Would Spell United States Wrong in an Executive Order

Donald Trump embarrassed as NFL ratings claim is contradicted

Trump Used to Be Good at Attacking the Press. Things Have Changed.

From the horse’s mouth: Trump’s comment on his presidency becomes accidental self-own

That last headline leads us to your Trump Quote of the Day:

Renaming AI to something else is Donald Trump’s latest effort in the Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! playbook. As with many other things, Donald Trump, arrogant and ignorant, thinks that just because he thinks of something and says it aloud, it’s so.

Desperate to make something out of nothing because 2026 has been such a horrible year for Donald Trump, he tried to make it look like he was being praised for being great.

Instead, he stupidly confessed that he’s doing a shitty job.

Couldn’t have said it better, Donald Trump.

Couldn’t have said it better.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music – Masquerade

Ashland, southern Oregon. Tuesday, September 29, 2026.

Another lovely autumn day in the Pacific northwest corner of the United States — at least in my small valley. 65 F, with sunshine and blue skies, and a high of 75 F expected.

Spent some time reading sickening news of the Cornell 7. The truth is dribbling out. Right now, the university and those seven men appear despicable, part of the patriarchy and ol’ boys network which so many of us have come to despise. It reminded me and my wife of how Brock Turner got off.

Mom’s birthday is next month. She’ll be 92. My sisters and I are sharing ideas about what she needs and what we can buy her to show love and caring while filling needs and making her a little happier.

One of the other residents is an elderly blind man. Mom returned to find him in her room after lunch today. He’d taken all her clothes out of her closet and strewn them around the room, knocked things over, and made a big mess. Mom summoned the home’s director. She’s calling the blind man’s daughter.

While what happened to Mom is disturbing, I think about what the blind man might be enduring, and how this call can affect his daughter and her family and plans. It’s another of those things which just induces sighs.

Listening to Trump, it feels like we’re at a masquerade ball. Trump pretends we’re in a golden age while so many struggle to pay bills and personal bankruptcies are at a rate not seen since 2010. As the US military launches more attacks on Iran and Iran swings back, Trump at once pretends it’s ‘a conflict’ and simultaneously declares we’re at war.

Trump also masquerades as being indifferent about the war, referring to it as small potatoes. I’m sure that Iranian citizens will be pleased to hear that Trump thinks the bombing of their nation and the killing of their children and others is ‘small potatoes’. But that’s Trump — a monster trying to masquerade as a human.

Most distressingly, so many Republicans, too many citizens, too many in the media, and even too many Democrats treat what Trump and the Project 2025 contingency embedded in his administration as if it’s normal. Chief Justice Roberts in the Supreme Court bounces around the masquerade ball, fretting about what Trump is doing, then enabling him via unsigned shadow docket rulings for emergencies.

So today’s music is “This Masquerade”. George Benson had a hit with this half a century ago, a fact that makes me LAUGH OUT LOUD.

I hope this day gave you a number of reasons to laugh out loud and look back with joy.

Cheers

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Trump’s Slipping Masks

Trump has worn masks all of his life.

Yeah, Trump put on masks as genius, intellectual, historian, grass keeper, builder…

Avoiding military service, Trump went to a military school and has since pretended he’s tough as a marine, as knowledgeable as admirals and generals.

Given hundreds of millions of dollars, power, and name when he was young, Donald Trump wore a mask as a self-made businessman. Masquerading as a leader, he’s trying to become a trillionaire via grift and political corruption.

Married three times, he’s worn masks as a faithful husband and doting father. Holding a Bible, he wore a mask as a Christian and paid money to hide his affairs.

Wearing a mask as a good friend to Epstein, Trump then put a mask that he would provide the truth, and now keeps trying to put on a mask that he had little to do with Epstein.

What wouldn’t Trump do to advance himself?

Well, tell the truth. Face reality.

Trump’s masks slip off his face so fast these days, it’s almost as if the masks are rejecting him. During his inauguration, Trump tried masking himself as a unifier and peacemaker.

Since that time in 2025, Trump:

  • Established immigration policies which ordered ICE to surge multiple times, brutally rounding up people, deporting them without due cause, detaining, shooting and killing US citizens
  • Directed the US Navy to attack boats in international waters, murdering 234 people without due process or evidence
  • Ordered the US military to kidnap President Maduro of Venezuela, again without court orders, due process, or evidence
  • Commanded the US military to attack Iran in 2025 to destroy their nuclear capability
  • Began a war with Iran to overturn their government and destroy their nuclear capability — which he’d already claimed to have destroyed, despite his promise of no new wars

Trump claimed he would Make America Healthy Again. Despite that slogan, the number of rural hospitals closing continues without slowing down. The hospital closures through 2026 are highest in Texas (39), Tennessee (19), Mississippi (17), and Oklahoma (17). All of these are red states who carried Trump back into office in 2025.

Measles outbreaks is at the highest levels in the United States since 1991, thanks to Trump’s healthcare policies and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Trump campaigned against President Biden and Vice President Harris on affordability. Now affordability is a major crisis for many Americans, completely tearing the mask off the person making those claims that he cared about them and would lower prices.

The worse mask Trump wore, though, was the one that he would govern in accordance with the Constitution and the laws and norms which bind our politics. Trump tossed that mask aside on day one. He began by Installing a billionaire, foreigner, and unelected individual, Elon Musk, to an official government position. Musk, via DOGE, fired employees, cut Congressionally authorized spending and programs, and ignored the checks and balance and agencies established via 250 years of trial and error, law, and votes.

That was only the beginning. Trump has since completely abandoned the masquerade that he’s for free and open democratic elections. Through Republican surrogates and toadies, he’s pushed for lines to be redrawn to favor Republicans. Using executive orders as imperial decrees, Trump personally attacked mail-in voting and is using the USPS and DHS to reduce its effectiveness — even though Trump uses the mail to cast his votes.

Classic Trump Double Standards. He never could find a mask to hide that one.

Trump’s masks fooled enough people that he was voted into office twice. But now, approach the midterms, enough of Trump’s masks have fallen away to expose all of his corruption and ineptitude.

Anyone voting for Trump now is voting to continue that corruption and ineptitude, regardless of the reasons they give for supporting Trump.

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg of corruption under Trump. We’re not sure how much of it is concealed. Growing evidence such as Trump’s exploding wealth and the number of pardons he’s issued led many of us to think that the corruption is enormous.

Vote blue in 2026 so We the People can begin again to try to have and hold a democratic republic.

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The Trump Receipts

Who had Trump will ignore the court on their bingo cards?

I wasn’t overly surprised to read the Trump White House still refused to let the MS Now, Politico, and CNN reporters in after a judge issued an injunction against the White House ban on the three news organizations.

Trump declares himself as a ‘law and order’ proponent but keeps breaking laws. He also claims to be for peace while ordering attacks on other nations and insists he’s for technology — pushing AI and data centers — while stopping work on wind and solar-energy initiatives.

Likewise, Trump declared he’s for freedom of the press and freedom as speech while trying to shut down both. So ignoring the court’s ruling is totally in line with his general hypocrisy and double standards. I mean, he promised no new wars and then went to war and declared that he never promised no new wars and it’s not a war anyway. LOL. His duplicity and lawlessness are breathtaking.

Ironically, it’s technology that reveals what Trump said, context and all, proving that he said it. We have receipts: video. Transcripts. Records. He can squirm and try to wriggle out of what he said, but as long as we keep paying attention, facts and truths won’t be forgotten.

That circles us back to the Epstein files — again. Trump said that, yeah, I’ll probably release them. Then he insisted the Epstein files are a Democrat hoax.

That’s another of his favorite tactics, calling things a hoax, and blaming it on the Democrats.

Trump calls affordability crisis a ‘hoax.’ The data tells a different story

Impeaching Trump — twice — was a Democrat hoax; the Democrats’ criticism of how Trump was handling the coronavirus pandemic — hoax; Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election was a hoax, according to Trump.

Trans-Pacific Partnership? Hoax.

Climate change? Hoax, in Trumpworld.

Even rural MAGA voters have caught onto Trump’s methods and policies.

MAGA voters turned off by President Trump’s falsehoods in 2026

The distractions, lies, and broken promises are catching up with Trump.

We the People have receipts, and we’re not letting this go.

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Trump Knows Better

Trump has said for years that he knows better.

Trump knows grass, claims he probably knows more than anybody in the world.

Trump knows more than the generals, he said. He’s always believed he knows more about trade, finance, and economics, as well as tariffs. Trump also claimed he knew more about medicine during COVID-19 than many doctors.

That’s why, despite all Trump’s expertise, the national debt is skyrocketing.

Measles outbreaks have achieved levels not seen in over a quarter century.

Affordability remains a growing crisis in the United States, with oil, diesel, and energy prices leading the way.

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t disappear overnight as Trump claimed it would. Over a million in the United States experienced COVID-19 related deaths. We are still coping with COVID-19 six years after Trump made those claims.

Look at the messes Trump has made across the world. Let’s begin with the garish gold he put on We the People’s house.

Shift to how he’s demolished the East Wing, wiping out a heritage he couldn’t grasp, which can’t be duplicated.

Trump then turned his ‘expertise’ to the Kennedy Center, which is now falling apart and begging for money.

Likewise, Trump messed up the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pond. Every time Trump had work done on the pool, Trump claimed, I know better. Every time, Trump disparaged others’ knowledge and efforts. Every time, Trump lied about what happened and bragged what he was doing next.

Trump burdened our economy with tariffs, thinking that will drive manufacturing to the United States, and started a war which he doesn’t know how to stop, which is only worsening the affordability crisis.

That would be the prices which Trump complained about as being too high under President Biden. Now they’re higher under Trump. But under Trump, Trump Double Standards are employed. He spins a new word weave. These prices are not higher. They’re coming down soon. And they’re not his fault. Nor are they a problem — it’s a golden age! Here’s some tariff relief to bring prices down and more pulled from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves to try to reduce prices.

Then, Trump proffered five grand if his party keeps control of Congress.

Finally, in a desperate effort to displace blame and responsibility, Trump pivoted, blaming Ukraine for high diesel prices because Ukraine bombed Russia while pretending the war he started with Iran isn’t the single largest driver of rising prices.

Just as a reminder, Trump said he would end the Ukraine Russia war by the time he took office in 2025, eighteen months ago. Despite that claim, the war continues.

In short, Trump has created a shit show.

Now Trump is claiming that he knows more than AI experts. Eschewing their warnings, just as he dismissed warnings about tariffs, war with Iran, COVID-19 — just as he’s ignored every warning any true knowledgeable expert gave.

Your Trump Quote of the Day

Trump’s dismissive response to experts’ AI warnings has all the hallmarks of a Trump mess:

  • Trump called it a hoax
  • Trump declared himself strong and smart
  • Trump insisted that those worried about it are part of a ‘conspiracy’

Dig in. The shit storm is about to get real.

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Here We Go Again — Your Trump Quotes of the Day

I laughed as soon as I read the headline today:

Trump pledges $5K ‘Trump dividend’ if Republicans hold onto Congress

Bribery: such a classic grifter move: I’ll pay you through the government if you vote to keep and put Republicans in office.

Gosh, has Trump ever made a promise like this before?

Trump Has Repeatedly Promised Payments That Have Yet to Materialize

I’m sure there are some voters out there nodding and saying, “Did you hear? Trump promised us money for our vote. I’m going to vote Republican.”

Meaning, they would need to pretend that Trump is going to follow through on this promise after all his other failed promises. It’s so much easier for Trump to promise more instead of fulfilling all the previous promises. Especially those promises Trump made such as, “I will not golf”, “I will deliver a new healthcare plan”, and “I will start no new wars.”

Or this classic Trump promise:

Over two years later, and we’re waiting for Trump to do what he promised.

Trump is calling this a ‘dividend’. He’s not really explaining how it’ll be paid for. It’s hard to believe that a ‘dividend’ is available when the national debt has surged past $40T, a level never seen before, and shows no signs of slowing.

In the past, Trump has cut programs and services which he didn’t like, labeling these fraud and waste. These were mostly from the regulatory side and the social safety net, like SNAP, healthcare premium subsidies, and childcare assistance. Since Trump has already cut those, what else can be cut? Defense?

I can see why people with little future and little hope, desperate just to make it to the next payday in order to buy gas and food might want to take Trump’s deal. But Trump is the one who create the 2026 affordability crisis. His DOGE cuts, tariffs, and bloated defense budget with its plan to build ‘Trump’ class battleships created this crisis. Trump’s Iran War fueled the crisis by disrupting the global supply chain and pushing gas prices to record levels.

Now, instead of addressing those things, he’s offering a bandage when surgery is needed.

I think Trump is falling back on an old favorite.

We’ll need to wait and see if Trump can buy his way out of another mess, as he tried to do when he paid off Stormy Daniels after Trump had an affair with her.

That worked out so well.

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Monday’s Theme Music — Moon Man

Ashland, southern Oregon. Monday, September 7, 2026.

Our valley will warm back up today. It’s 52 F now but the high is supposed to be in the upper 70s. Sunshine and blue sky are all my vantage offers. Warmer tomorrow, in the low 80s, and low 90s by Wednesday.

It’s Labor Day in the US. Happy Labor Day! Labor Day used to mark the unofficial end of the summer and the start of the autumn and school year when I was growing up. As I moved to other areas, I discovered the school year starting in August as districts frontloaded the school calendar in anticipation of school closures for snow days.

This is one of those holidays Mom enjoyed as family. It usually meant a gathering and cookout. I feel fortunate to have such memories of enjoying life, delicious food, fun company.

For today, there is no cookout. We’re going to friends later for dinner and games. I go on with my normal routines.

Trump launched another part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! last weekend. He’s been making some outrageous claims by changing the names of places, generating AI images, and doing his pathetic little kicks dance. And Trump changed his hair style to some very ugly reviews. He’s even trying to fix the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — again — crowing — again — how great it’ll be, which stirred a lot of mocking about him and his previous claims, and the amount of money Trump has spent trying to fix it.

With all that bad press happening, Trump went to the net and — quick. LOOK — SQUIRREL!

“THE MOON IS OURS”

Yes, that’s Donald Trump, current Oval Office occupant, highest elected position in the land, acting like a cartoon villain.

Just to prove how much of a fool he is, and keep us distracted, Trump also floated changing New Mexico’s name.

Trump Floats Renaming New Mexico as ‘New America,’ Prompting Pushback

I’m sure MAGAzens are chortling, “Look how Trump is owning the libs!” Meanwhile, they’re paying a lot more for food and gas. For example, gas prices on Labor Day 2024 were about $3.29 a gallon. Thanks to Trump, they’re at a record Labor Day high.

Fuel prices at record Labor Day high in US thanks to Iran War and refinery issues

The gas price per gallon US average is $4.14, 32 cents per gallon more than the previous record, set in 2012.

Affordability remains a crisis in the US, Trump’s war with Iran is dragging on — 191 days and counting — he hasn’t released the Epstein files…it’s a long list of failures and broken promises.

That’s the Trump legacy.

That’s the MAGA legacy.

In honor of Trump’s absurdity, my morning mental music stream is gushing with songs about the moon. So many are out there…”Dark Side of the Moon” punched in fast. But I ended up with “Man on the Moon” by R.E.M.

Sample Lyrics

Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Monopoly, twenty-one checkers, and chess
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Let’s play Twister, let’s play Risk
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
See you in Heaven if you make the list
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey baby, are we losing touch?

If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon

If you believe there’s nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool

The 1992 song was a tribute to comedian Andy Kaufman. It’s also about questioning truth, history, and reality, and losing track of these things. It’s a suitable song to reflect what we seem to be seeing from Trump and his long, very public decline.

As always, I wish the best for you and yours on this day as well as every other day.

Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music — Games

Ashland, southern Oregon. Saturday, August 8, 2026.

Cooler today. Although now 74 F, it will get only to 96 today. Officially, I think we hit 99 yesterday. My house saw 102 again.

There’s another fire burning. This one is to our northeast. Already at 19,000 acres with no containment, we’ve added it to our fire watch.

Trump urged his Attorney General to open prosecutions of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool again. Given the plethora of bad news for Trump this week, I’m not surprised.

That’s part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! When things get bad, Trump tries to change the topic. Bad economic news came out. Trump would normally bluster about bombing Iran again. Can’t: low munitions, so they’re supposed to be ‘negotiating’.

Fallback number two would be to talk about how great everything is. But with prices still up and affordability still in crisis mode, he’s probably been advised to not talk about that.

Trump’s other topics would be calling climate change a hoax but with so many fires burning in the United States, he’s been silent about them — after stupidly threatening to impose tariffs on Canada because their wildfire smoke was bothering the US. While the US has ‘only’ burned over 6 million acres compared to 9 million in Canada, the United States’s fires outnumber Canadian fires 45,000 to 3,900.

Trump sure as hell can’t talk about Epstein…especially after a Federal court ruled that tearing down part of the White House to build a new ballroom was outside of Trump’s authority. That sent Trump off on an angry frenzy; since Trump lives there, he thinks he can do what he wants to it and fails completely to understand that the White House belongs to We the People. He’s just an occupant, and many of us are ready to kick him out.

With celebration of the nation’s 250 Anniversary going poorly so far, Trump is staying pretty mum about the Patriot Games which are starting this week. They had to move them from D.C. to Ohio. This is a classic Trump thing: the Freedom 250 Indycar race is coming up in a few weeks. Guess what? You can’t set up for an Indycar race at the same time that you’re running Patriot Games. The operations clashed, setting up a logistics nightmare.

So the Hunger Games — sorry, Patriot Games — were quietly moved.

I’m not overly impressed with those games, either:

The DC Indycar race — arrives later this month. The event has free admission, but many are angry about it. 1) Trump ignored getting approval from anyone for the event — surprise! 2) Although ‘free’, people attending aren’t permitted to bring in anything: chairs, foods, suntan lotion, drink, etc. 3) Locals are upset about how the race and its logistics are going to affect their lives during hot, humid August, especially when the race was forced on them without their approval.

So, back to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool for Trump. It’s a mess that he created, a blot on his recorded, etched into his legacy, along with the Iran war, Epstein files, poor economy, and his corruption and ineptitude. He created this mess, and he’s going to go down swinging, pretending it’s not his own fault.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Yes, he’s had some great polls, if you ignore over half the nation.

Trump is weak, ineffective, losing power and losing face. He’s struggling to save it, but too delusional to do anything meaningful. So he’ll continue with the same ol’ same ol’ fantasies, ranting, raving, threatening, and bullying.

With all these thoughts of games — Trump’s games, pretending that he’s doing great, the ‘Patriot’ games, etc — Les Neurons supplied the morning mental music stream with an Alan Parson Project fave, “Games People Play.”

May your day bring a winning hand your way today and every day.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music — Runnin’ with the Devil

Ashland, southern Oregon. Tuesday, August 4, 2026.

Supposed to get hellishly hot here today. 89 F now, the temperature is expected to go over 100 F. Heat index supposed to magnify the intensity.

Smoke from the fires has floated into our area. Air quality is slowly declining.

Back east, my sister reports that the closing on Mom’s house has slid back to August 14.

Reading the news, checking the weather, I again have “Running with the Devil” by Van Halen playing in the morning mental music stream. Trump is burning down the world. GOP is going along with it. MAGAts cheer him on.

Deteriorating quality of life, weather, rising inequality, increasing costs — who cares as long as Trump is getting his, right? That’s the Republican vision for the United States: protect Trump. Laugh at his ridiculous antics. Pretend that he’s not stealing them blind. Pretend that he’s making life better.

All they need to do is not think too hard about it. Stay in their Trump shells. Blame everyone else, everything else. And when he’s gone?

Well, first, will they accept that he’s dead? Will he become a second Jesus, where they spend their days waiting for him to come back? Will they pretend that he’s alive but being hidden by the deep state.

It’s all possible. GOP and MAGAts are good at pretending. Better at pretending than they are at thinking.

Hope you stay safe and comfortable, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing.

Cheers

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